October 31st, 2018
I usually don’t touch on the video packages that open the show each week, but this week’s was phenomenal, recapping the main events that led up to our three matches tonight.
Aerostar meets with Catrina’s Mother, and he tells her that he doesn’t need her help, he needs her half of the ancient aztec medallion. Vasquez hands it over, and seemingly dies while doing so. Interesting.
Matt Striker and Vampiro welcome us to the show, hyping tonight’s main event, which is the Mask vs. Mask match between Son of Havoc and Killshot.
Trios Championship Elimination Match: The Reptile Tribe (c) vs. The Rabbit Tribe vs. Ivelisse, Sammy Guevara, and XO Lishus
With this being a tornado tag, the expectations of this being “the most crazy trios match in LU history” were met. I’m not the biggest fan of The Rabbit Tribe going out first, but the elimination made sense, and it’s nice to have some Trios Champions who actually hold the titles for a good amount of time. The White Rabbit got to look very dominant, and the elimination came at the hands of Sammy Guevara after a miscommunication between Bunny and London. In typical Killer Kross fashion, he pulled out the MANDIBLE CLAW to bust open the mouth of Sammy. As for the rest of the match, it was full of action, nonstop brawling, and pure awesomeness. Sammy Guevara hitting the Spanish Fly to Kobra Moon off one of the office’s was INSANE. XO, Ivelisse, and Sammy were great babyfaces, but fall short yet again when the lights shined bright. Great match to kick off Ultima Lucha.
Winners: The Reptile Tribe
Match Rating: ***1/2
Ricky Mundo w/His Creepy Doll vs. Taya Mundo
There wasn’t much to this one, as expected. It was here to give Taya a rebound win, and get revenge on Ricky. I’m not a big fan of Ricky losing, as it makes him look like a complete joke, and completely useless moving forward. The match wasn’t special, as most of the action took place on the outside, and the submission finish came off as super flat. I’m glad we got that done with, time to move on.
Winner: Taya
Match Rating: **1/4
After the match, Taya hits a chokeslam on Ricky, sending him through the table he set up at ringside. Taya then grabbed Ricky’s creepy doll and walked out with it.
Mask vs. Mask: Son of Havoc vs. Killshot
Killshot absolutely stole the show last year on Part I of Ultima Lucha when he took on Datne Fox in a Art of War Match, and this was no different. Killshot came out with his new attitude, while Son of Havoc has been built up for all four seasons now, and it was finally time for him to get a big win. Killshot brought in the same stretcher that carted him out last year (great note Matt Striker), but in the end it costed him. Son of Havoc kicked out of two huge moves from Killshot, and the crowd was fully behind him, as he strapped Killshot to the stretcher and hit the huge Shooting Star to pick up the win. Great stuff.
Winner: Son of Havoc
Match Rating: ***3/4
Killshot reveals that his name is Lt. Strickalnd, and for the past few years he’s been trying to escape his identity, and the fact that he left his brothers dead. Incase you didn’t know, that’s Shane Strickland! Lt. Strickland then hands his mask over to Son of Havoc as he receives “Thank You Killshot” chants.
Dante Fox meets up with Lt. Strickland as he goes to leave, Strickland apologizes to Fox for everything. Strickalnd requests to be relieved of his duties, and Fox agrees. BYE STRICKLAND!
Final Thoughts:
Ultima Lucha is here, and the first part didn’t disappoint. While not one of the most insane shows you’ll see, this was a really effective hour, and kicked off the show on the right note. The Trios Title match was insane, and better than I expected it to be, with a really surprising outcome, that being The Reptile Tribe retaining. We had “filler” as some would say, with Taya getting her redemption on Ricky Mundo, but it wasn’t terrible, didn’t take up a ton of time, and got the job done. Things moved on to the GREAT main event, which saw Killshot reveal himself to be Lt. Strickland, who would’ve thought? On top of that, Aerostar got the full aztec medallion, pretty much killing Catrina’s Mother, and Dante Fox relieved Shane Strickland of his duties. What can we expect from next week? I’M SO HYPED!!!
Final Rating: 7.0/10